Introduction: In January of 2020, one virus was able to set the whole world into a frenzy. COVID-19 is a form of Coronavirus which is a respiratory disease that had shut down various states for months. New York City had a total of almost one million cases of coronavirus. The virus had put cities under lockdown, closed restaurants, jammed hospitals, and many state governments required people to wear a mask for everyone’s safety. All of this happened within a month of the first cases spotted in the United States in mid to late February. By early March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic and on March 22nd, the entire New York City was under hard lockdown. But as COVID-19 was investigated more, it was brought to the public’s attention that information was being withheld from us by governments and that this was not the first rodeo with Coronavirus. Questions started being raised. “Where did Coronavrius come from and how did it spread so fast without any warning?”

 

MLA Entry: Chris Buckley, David D. Kirkpatrick, Amy Qin, and Javier C. HernĂĄndez. “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp.” The New York Times, 3 February 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/world/asia/china-coronavirus.html?searchResultPosition=9

“How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp”

Summary: When China first investigated the coronavirus, Dr. Zhong Nanshan, was rushed to Wuhan, the central city of China. Dr. Zhong Nanshan, who had relieved people of a previous relieved people of a similar epidemic 17 years ago, was called in an emergency to help bring light to the new form of Coronavirus. Dr. Nanshan was astonished when he found how dangerous the virus was and how fast it was spreading. Dr. Nanshan rushed to Beijing and urged officials to sound the alarm to warn China about the rapidly spreading virus. Scientists and private laboratories identified the kind of coronavirus outbreak it was and mapped its spread before Beijing considered the seriousness of the virus after they were already alerted. A Professor located in Shanghai by the name of Zhang Yongzhen also reported that he knew the impact COVID-19 could have on the country, but, he too, was ignored. However, by then, approximately 636 lives had been taken by the coronavirus and it was too late to try and enforce containment. The first alarm wasn’t sounded until 25 after December 30th, 2019 when the government was confronted about the virus. The article states “yet officials in Wuhan and Beijing concealed the extent of infections or refused to act on warnings.” Hostilities arose between the U.S. and China’s government because information was not shared on behalf of either parties.

After being exposed, China was reluctant to understand where and how the virus emerged. Scientists dug deeper to find that SARS, a previous epidemic that occurred in 2002 – 2003, had revisited in a new form of coronavirus. Two different commercial labs reached the same conclusion. It was also discovered that the same coronavirus was spotted in animals meaning it was transferred from animal to human and then rapidly from human to human.

Analysis: The author’s of “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp” are Chris Buckley, David Kirkpatrick, Amy Qin, and Javier HernĂĄndez. Buckley, Kikpatrick, Qin, and HernĂĄndez collectively wrote this article to inform adults about what was really going on behind the virus. Many people were not aware of where the virus originated and was fed lies. The purpose of  “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp” has a serious tone because the matter behind the pandemic was hidden from the public which isn’t okay. “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp” did expand on events their audience did not know about or knew little of. 

Response: I knew very little about the coronavirus. Information on China’s government concealing information and the SARS epidemic was pieced together in this article. Former President Trump was very angry with China’s government when he was informed how much they already knew but didn’t share. I believe China’s government was afraid to release what they knew about the virus to keep the citizens and other countries. Trump said some ignorant things that were not justified but I could understand the frustration he faced after uncovering the same facts. Other articles, such as the next one, similar to “How COVID-19 Slipped China’s Grasp” share the same information even from other doctors’ perspectives in China as well so I think this article is credible.

 

MLA Entry: Hilary Leung. “Doctor Who Sounded Alarm on Coronavirus Dies in China.” TIME, 7 February 2020, https://time.com/5779678/li-wenliang-coronavirus-china-doctor-death/

“Doctor Who Sounded Alarm on Coronavirus Dies in China”

Summary: Towards the end of December 2020, the outbreak caught the attention of an ophthalmologist by the name of Dr. Li Wenliang. A text message that wrote “A new coronavirus infection has been confirmed and its type is being identified. Inform all family and relatives to be on guard,” was sent out to Dr. Li Wenliang’s former medical school classmates on December 30th. China, however, did not appreciate Dr. Wenliang’s warnings about the strange cases that seemed similar to SARS and he was arrested by local authorities for “making untrue comments” and “severely disturbing social order.” Yet, he knew what was true and untrue and continued carrying out his message about the virus through social media, texts, and interviews. Dr. Li Wenliang  came to be true when it was found that “The infection turned out not to be SARS, but 2019-nCov—a coronavirus in the same deadly family.”

Unfortunately, Dr. Wenliang was a victim of the same virus he tried to warn his former classmates of. “At the time, Wuhan’s health bureau said there was no evidence of spread between humans”, which turned out to be false, in January, when Dr. Wenliang was diagnosed with coronavirus after being infected by a patient of his. The mayor oh Wuhan later admitted to “mishandling the crisis” and not releasing information quick enough and on Jan. 28, about two months into the global pandemic, China’s top court rebuked Wuhan police for punishing eight people, including Li, for “spreading rumors.”

Analysis: Hilary Leung wrote the article “Doctor Who Sounded Alarm on Coronavirus Dies in China”. Leung wrote this article to notify people of the extent China went through in hopes of masking the truth about the coronavirus. I believe the author just wanted to send awareness out of how China tried to lie to its own citizens. “Doctor Who Sounded Alarm on Coronavirus Dies in China” was written for a more mature audience because the events that were discussed are very horrid and foul. I do believe that China got the police involved to keep its citizen from passing word around and that Dr. Li Wenliang was one of many that tried to warn the government. This article is credible because this article’s story aligns with other articles that prove the same point: China should have reported what they knew.

Response: I think people fear what they do not know and I think this was a prime example. China did not want to release their knowledge of what was happening because they did not understand how bad the virus was. I feel as though they did not want this virus to turn into a pandemic, just hoped the spread ending because that is exactly what happened with the SARS pandemic and why that virus did not need a vaccine. It’s a shame that Coronavirus had to be unstoppable for China to disclose their secret.

 

Conclusion: These two articles taught me three things; Coronavirus is a family of viruses and COVID-19 was just the form of an outbreak; COVID-19 was able to spread quickly because there was no political or social update on it, and China withholding information causing chaos and confusion within the world. Anyone who needed clarity on what happened in late 2010 and early 2020 should take a look at the articles because they were very informative and correlate with one another well. If a timeline was added to both of the articles, they would hold the same information and repeated dates.